ISLAMABAD: World Population Day commemorated on Tuesday to draw attention to the urgency and significance of population-related matters.
This year’s theme, “Unleashing the Power of Gender Equality: Uplifting the Voices of Women and Girls to Unlock Our World’s Infinite Possibilities,” strikes a profound chord in the context of Pakistan where women empowerment has remained a significant challenge due to low literacy rates and limited female participation in the workforce. Shockingly, 48% of women in Pakistan are illiterate, 79% are not part of the labor force, and only 10% can make independent decisions about their own health.
This was discussed during the Media Coalition Meeting held to mark World Population Day organized by the Population Council. Media Coalition, comprises of media persons from all provinces representing all major media outlets of Pakistan. The coalition highlights the cross sectoral impact of rapid population growth periodically to raise awareness and hold governments accountable for improving the well being of the people.
Briefing the media, Ummi Kalsoom, Senior Project Officer at the Population Council presented the data on women’s education, health and labour force participation. She stressed the media to raise awareness on these issues through their news stories. She said, “media should highlight the issues to remove all forms of discrimination against girls, in terms of diet, education and healthcare. Girls should be treated as equal as boys and must be educated to plan their families according to their resources”. She also urged media to play its part in ensuring enrollment of all out of school girls and incentivization of their education till secondary level, as 37% girls remain out of school in the country. Media can also hold governments responsible to ensure service delivery of family planning services besides raising awareness to enhance male engagement in family planning.
Speaking to the media on challenges of women empowerment in Pakistan, Fauzia Yazdani, Social &Public Policy Advisor (Gender and Women Empowerment) said “One of the most important ways to enhance women’s rights is to increase their access to education and employment. When women are educated and employed, they are more likely to be able to make their own choices about their lives and contribute to the economic development of the country. Research indicates that lack of women empowerment contributed to the country’s unsustainable population growth as educated and employed women are empowered to better plan their families”.
In his welcome remarks, the Senior Director Programs, Population Council said “Pakistan ranks amongst the lower rank of the Global Gender Gap Index 2022.Pakistan’s gender gap is particularly wide in the areas of economic participation and opportunity, and political empowerment. For example, women make up only 21% of the labor force in Pakistan, and they hold only 20% of seats in the National Assembly” He urged journalists to actively contribute to achieving development targets by simultaneously focusing on education, healthcare (including family planning), and female workforce participation.
